Launch facilities known - mobile launch facilities known. Would be quite a failure of satellite surveillance ( at least one Geo-stationary at that location ) to miss proper date/time locations for a single strike.

what exactly do you expect to do about the chinese when in the words of the chinese defense minister the north korean military and chinese military are "as close as teeth and gums" or something to that effect? i mean i know we are going to go to war with them at some point but are we ready now?

No, we do NOT necessarily have to go to war with China/North Korea. North Korea is a self-imploding country if China does not prop it up. The U.S. can trigger the self implosion, too, but let us all hope that it will never happen for the sake of humanity. The U.S. had been monitoring the problem of North Korea's missiles and nuclear program for many years so we are likely to be ready and well prepared.

NO country is truly self reliant. North Korea demonstrated again and again that it could not even feed its own people. China turning off its oil spigot to North Korea got its attention. Just imagine what would happen if the U.S. destroyed China's oil infrastructures for good (or at least until they could be rebuilt and I assure you that the U.S. could shut it down again and again till the cold winter climate of North Korea claims its human toll). If the Chinese retaliated against the U.S., it would be a great opportunity to settle the Cold-War scores for a good few centuries at least.

Key aspects of North Korea's third nuclear weapon test, carried out on Tuesday, remain unknown. We do not know whether it was a test of a plutonium or highly enriched uranium weapon, though many experts suspect the latter. We also do not know whether this weapon was a primitive design or miniaturized to fit on a ballistic missile (though North Korea has claimed the latter). Given the relative seismic readings, this test likely had about 2.5 times the weapon yield of North Korea's second test, which according to Dr. Sieg Hecker of Stanford was in the range of 2 to 7 kilotons, putting this test at about 5 to 18 kilotons.

I'm just a bit dubious about the whole war scenario. Iraq, Libya, Syria, we've been told a heap of BS about them. I'm still not sure what we are doing in Afghanistan, when Pakistan is where all the drone strikes seem to be taking place.

I take nothing distributed over the MSM at face value. All I am trying to say "is" if the threat were real - we have the capability to destroy those launch sites prior to their being used. Result? No need to go any further.

There is only very negligible risk to the U.S. homeland. China, Japan, and South Korea are a different matter altogether.

North Korea still lacks the guidance capability to strike the U.S. homeland with any real accuracy although it is possible that its missile(s) can hit the U.S. homeland but that will most likely be non-nuclear and only have the effect of detonating a big bomb in our own missile test ranges (i.e., a significant amount of damage in moonscape no-man's land -- hohum). Take a random stab at a map of the western U.S. -- it is NOT easy to strike a population center. Besides, if North Korea were to strike at the U.S. homeland, it would be quickly immobilized and decapitated as having been demonstrated more than once already in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our defense agreements with Japan and South Korea ARE worrisome because what do we do if North Korea were to strike at our allies' population centers?

I do not buy it. Kim Jung-Un is very inexperienced in knowing what it means to suffer because he was the 'prince'. He may think that it is a video game until it hits him but by that time we would all be very sorry indeed because it would be too late. Thinking himself being invulnerable could very well be his downfall unless he learns to handle Realpolitik schnell.

I agree, he is young, inexperienced, and may well think he can't be hurt. I do not believe he thinks this is a video game, but probably sees this as gamesmanship that his father & grandfather both exploited successfully.

We cannot reward spoiled brat behavior. China should be dealing with him firmly. We should be ready to knock down as many missiles as possible.

north korea has a military that is trained as well as armed and equipped with modern armaments unlike iraq and afghanistan. not just that but china has a mutual defense treaty with north korea. still think that those missiles can't hit u.s. cities?

Iraq under Saddam Hussein had a formidable and fairly modern military force. How else could Iraq behave as the 'Bully of the Middle East' if it did not have the military backing? Its neighbors would have laughed their teeth off if Iraq's military force were a joke.

Iraq under Saddam Hussein proved that it had the military force to fight Iran (a major regional power) to a stalemate, conquer Kuwait, and nearly invade Saudi Arabia. Yet it proved very vulnerable twice when the U.S. went against it in operation Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.

Afghanistan did not have the strong military force but it has formidable terrains working against military operations. Yet the U.S. military proved versatile enough to force a regime change quickly.

China's treaty with North Korea is an historical legacy. I am sure that China is getting pretty fed up with the recalcitrant North Korea, too. Remember that China IS a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and could have vetoed any and all of the sanctions imposed against North Korea. China had a long-enduring friendship with North Korea going against the U.S. but North Korea seemed to have given China the 'shove-it' treatment more recently. China can be tolerant and understanding but it does NOT have infinite patience to be betrayed or treated as a fool.

North Korea's missile(s) CAN hit U.S. cities but that is highly unlikely to happen within the next year or so. We still have some time to address the problem but we must deal with it head-on and forthrightly, remembering that the Cold-War scores have NOT been completely settled there yet even though we now have the new global power of Chimerica.

you don't seem to fully grasp global politics at all. in addition you don't seem to grasp the reality on the ground in iraq and afghanistan vs. north korea or the complex historical elements involved with the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, and us/uk/un.

It will be the usual game of Russia being neutral, China backing up North Korea until we call its cards, North Korea doing its drunken threat dance till someone throws a bucket of icy water on it to put a total stop to its folly, and the U.S./U.K./U.N. talking, sanctioning, and saving North Korea until it reaches the brink of nuclear attack and Boom! there comes the resolve to tackle the Cold War relic!

Tim Rifat, an ex MI-5 agent, and PhD Chemist, claims that North Korea possesses an "ultimate defense" based on a form of cobalt which could induce severe radiation sickness on a global level, wiping out civilization.

South Korea has the most at stake so help them help themselves is the most reasonable option in the longer term. South Korea would definitely show courage when its existence were to be called into question by North Korea.

Japan is still too scary for its neighbors to become armed again so let us keep doing only one thing at a time so some sanity can be preserved while problems are being solved.

It is true that there is no nice and tidy way but look at what is on the other side of the balance -- it is just another big pile of lousy and dirty mess! We are all condemned unless we enlighten ourselves but that seems very unlikely so the balance will tilt and the four horsemen shall ride again.

For truly feeling what it is like 'walking in the other person's moccasins' and then act on the empathy and understanding of the connections attained. We are all products of memories from our ancestors and ancient times. We can choose to live under their spells or be enlightened that they are no more than memories which can be suppressed, sublimated, deleted, or substituted if we so wish.

Oh, hey, the thought dominatrix is back with her little lacky's. I wondered where you all were. Did you all have a little powow, a confab, a little coffee klatch? And was this the best you could come up with, trying to say that I am actually GRAPES?

Classic example of GF's arrogance. Didn't even bother to read gsw's post, in which he was defending her/ trying to reconcile. GF, you're just a flying, flaming, hit and run ego tripper. . .

"I'm in with the movers and shakers - can't be bothered with the opinon of one 'stupid, little, humble,' member of the 99%. Got bigger fish to fry - yada, yada, yada."

I've seen this attitude all my life - and it fucking SUCKS!

""""""LOOK AT ME - LOOK AT ME!!!!""""""

gsw is the real article, and your obscene dismissal of him without even bothering to read his post says it all about you.

Who the fuck do you think you are to sit in judgement of everyone here ? Who you present youself as here simply has no bearing on who you really are! Words can't ultimately hide the nature of the soul. You are arrogant, entitled, condescending, over-privilidged, vulgar, manipuating and obscene.

Fuck You GF. Just Fuck You.

There will be no more well meaning apologies to you from me. You can be assurred of that - and if I were you, I'd steer clear of me on this forum in the future. That is a warning.

You are such a piece of fucking shit. You always were. You're a multiple ID douche-bag that skips in under this ID makes a faux cry and skips right out with a huge drama fest over leaving. Then you send a bunch of pretentious pms. There were never any meaningful apologies from you.

You and your bullshit you are free to hate me now

Get this---I was always free to hate you, jack ass.

There is nothing to sit in judgement about, hon. You just don't like it when the truth comes out. As a rule, I steer clear of you unless you decide to pop your head over to say something completely disingenuous and be a general prick. Don't fucking threaten me ass hole. Either bring your shit on or sit down and shut the fuck up. Fuck you and your warning.

The Thought Dominatrix? I almost like that. It has a certain black leather appeal.

No. Not the best. I figure that since you have more than one ID and you have been posting recently because you obviously cannot stay away then it may as well be you. If not, why miss the opportunity to .............smack you.

The really sad thing is - that we have the technology to end strife over water resources and over power resources - we have the knowledge to raise up Dr.s and clean/green tech engineers and land conservationist farmers. We can stop polluting the planet with fossil fuel extraction and use.

Except for the fact of the insanity of those in positions of power to continue on as they are.

Unbelievable how Americans can be simple minded. Yes, let's not start a war, let's simply destroy their launching pads. Doh! Wait, that would start a war! What do you think would happen if a country would destroy America's launching pads (it has the most in the world). You don't think it would piss you guys off? Where do you live? In some kind of fantasy land?

Start by getting rid of your own nukes American boy. Then we'll have something to talk about. You ain't the world's police.